At the clinic gate, a 7-year-old collapsed, crying, “Mommy has been sleeping for three days, please save them.” The doctor rushed to help the newborn twins, but as he lifted them, his hands shook. Underneath the babies was a handwritten note from the mother that made the doctor freeze in terror…

mile, the pavement of the distant town seemed like a mirage that kept retreating the closer I walked. The dirt trail was treacherous, riddled with jagged stones and deep, baked ruts that threatened to tip the wheelbarrow at every agonizing step.

My bare feet, calloused as they were from a feral childhood, quickly began to tear. I stepped on a piece continue reading …